Flying aircraft create localized disturbances in the space through which it flies. These disturbances, known as wake turbulence, include vortices created at each wing tip of the aircraft and may persist for up to several minutes. Thus, wake turbulence creates an unseen, dangerous flight condition for any aircraft passing through the disturbance.
Because there is no instrumentation configured to detect wake turbulence, conventional visual flight rules require the pilot to track leading aircraft and mentally extrapolate the leading aircraft's flight path to their own aircraft to estimate the turbulence. Avoidance is practiced by flying above the mentally extrapolated flight path in flight and touching down further along the runway than a previously landed aircraft. Conventional instrument flight rules place the burden of tracking potential disturbances on air traffic control to identify and warn each aircraft of potential wake turbulence and provide a possible, alternate final approach path.
Yet, there are a number of factors that affect the magnitude, longevity, and location of the wake turbulence, including, for example, relative size of the leading aircraft as compared to the trailing aircraft, the flight path and orientation of the trailing aircraft, air of the vortices, weather conditions (light winds, updrafts, etc.), and the experience level of the trailing aircraft's pilot. Simulation and modeling of wake turbulence have provided Reduced Separation Systems (“RSS”) that are used in limited amounts by air traffic control stations of few airports worldwide. RSS estimates wake turbulence and inter-aircraft spacing that safely reduces spacing between landing and taking-off aircraft while minimizing dangerous wake and maximizing runway capacity. Still, RSS is not implemented worldwide and is only used at airports, i.e., not during in-flight travel.
Thus, there remains a need for a system configured to track and/or estimate wake turbulence and to convey information with respect thereto to the pilot of a trailing aircraft such that the trailing aircraft may safely avoid the dangerous disturbances, particularly during in-flight travel.